If you could add an event to the Olympics...

[Pingu]

Face jumping & catching the javelin 

[PaulF]

 I once told my ex-wife that we'd won silver in the snowman making at the Winter Olympics.

She was furious when she got home the next day having relayed details of British 'success' to her workmates

[Mr Larrington]

• Pooh sticks
• Cheese rolling
• Any other of the odd pastimes that Rory McGrath and that other bloke are doing on the telly ATM

[onb]

Squash

Agreed 


Long distance spitting .

[αdαmsκι]

Rock climbing (both lead climbing and bouldering)
Squash
Fell running

[andygates]

An offroad run would be interesting.

They're thinking of introducing women's boxing for 2012.  I say go for it - men-only stuff is so last century, and we've got a marvelous clutch of brawling biffer birds who are all mad and hard enough to medal heavily.  And it's olympic boxing with the pads, which is really Wii boxing with better haptics...   

[Pete]

In another thread I mooted doggy-paddle being added to the swimming canon.

Anyone remember Michael Bentine's Square Games?  A rich haul of potential medal-winners there!  Never could understand the rules of Drats though...

And ... how about Mornington Crescent?  Brits would sweep the board I reckon...

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

We've been discussing this at work and we've decided we'd like to see a cross between diving and chicken. Contestants would compete to see who could jump off the highest board, and the board would be raised between every round, last one to chicken out is the winner.

[nuttycyclist]

BEER drinking

[Charlotte]

Full contact Scrabble

[Mr Larrington]

Extreme ironing

[Andrij]

Conkers! 

[Jacomus]

Low quality public building? Which team can build the poorest designed structure in the longest time the most wildly over budget. Extra points to be gained for not providing parking, but also not providing any sensible public / sustainable transport routes either.

We might as well get the gold before the game even begins, as no-one is going to wait around long enough to see if our builders actually finish the job.

[Jaded]

Farting.

With medals for:

Loud Fart
Long Fart
Artistic Fart

with, as a long shot, BioWarFare Fart.

Of course judges would have to be carefully selected. I'd be no good: I'd be laughing too much.

[nuttycyclist]

But would anybody dare go for the follow through?

[PrettyBoyTim]

Parkour races

[Phil]

Tallbike jousting. 

[dkahn400]

An offroad run would be interesting.

There is a cross-country run in the modern pentathlon. Does that count?

[bikenerd]

One of the new events this time around is a 10km open water swim.  That sounds hardcore!
In that spirit, I think there should be an offroad run.
If it's one event in, one event out, I nominate rhythmic gymnastics to be outed.  Proper gymnastics is awe-inspiring.  Rhythmic gymnastics is the prancing about in front of the telly that my little sister used to do as a small girl! 

[KidJambo]

Being serious for a moment if I may, I caught the World Championships of a sport that was like a cross between billiards and shove ha'penny on Eurosport the other day - can anyone remind me what it was called? - looked like an ideal potential Olympic sport - a bit of a pub-game that we could rule at!

[KidJambo]

One of the new events this time around is a 10km open water swim.....

.....being chased by man-eating sharks or, even better, mythical giant sea creatures from those pictures by ancient mariners? Now thats a sport!

[Pingu]

Sardines. Hide and seek. Spin the Bottle (especially if the Israeli gets the Iranian). Statues.

I'd get rid of the mincing about on horses equestrianism 

[HTFB]

Croquet would be rather good.

It's been done before.

[KidJambo]

I also quite fancy freediving/drowning...

...get rid of the so-called "modern" pentathlon. Whats modern about it? Should replace horses with little 50cc stolen scooters, the fencing foils with flick knives and make the contestants wear hoodies!

[Pete]

Croquet would be rather good.

It's been done before.

And a reminder that the Wimbledon championships are organised by the AELTCC which stands for All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.  Not sure who the current Wimbledon Croquet champion is though...

Seriously though (well half-seriously), I remember at primary school sports day the following:

• Sack Race.
• Egg-and-Spoon Race*.
• Slow Bicycle Race.
• Three-Legged Race.
• Wheelbarrow Race**.

and to cap them all:

• Obstacle Race.

I remember tuning in to the Rome Olympics on our brand-new 12" TV, back in 1960; and being devastated to learn that none of these events were featured....

*I suspect this gave rise to the first-ever 'cheating' scandal.  But super-glue wasn't around in those days, all the kids could have got their hands on was Gloy.  Still, being the inventive kids we were.....

**I won that one!    (Jointly) I was the guy holding the other kid's legs, he did all the work with his hands....